Interrogates the common culture of slavery between the Genoese, Venetian, and Mamluks in and around the later medieval Mediterranean. The work uses Arabic and Latin sources to present the ways in which the Black Sea trade in enslaved persons entwined actors across cultures and kingdoms, while also portraying the social landscape against which medieval enslaved persons lived and acted. Barker's work demonstrates that an integral part of that landscape was the construction of racial difference. This work is part of broader conversations in the study of the Mediterranean, cultural history, enslavement, and trade.